Gabe Newell

Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), also known by his nickname GabeN, is an American video game developer and businessman. He is the president and co-founder of the video game company Valve Corporation.

Newell was born in Colorado and grew up in Davis, California. He attended Harvard University in the early 1980s but dropped out to join Microsoft, where he helped create the first versions of the Windows operating system. In 1996, he and Mike Harrington left Microsoft to found Valve and fund the development of their first game, Half-Life (1998). Harrington sold his stake in Valve to Newell and left in 2000. Newell led the development of Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, which launched in 2003 and controlled most of the market for downloaded PC games by 2011.

As of 2021, Newell owned at least one quarter of Valve; Forbes estimated that he owned at least half as of 2025. He has been estimated as one of the wealthiest people in the United States and the wealthiest person in the video games industry, with an estimated net worth of Template:US$ as of 2025. He is also the owner of the marine research organization Inkfish, the neuroscience company Starfish Neuroscience, and the custom yacht manufacturer Oceanco.

Early life and education

Newell was born on November 3, 1962, in Colorado, and attended Davis Senior High School in Davis, California.<ref name="Fish-2021">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He began computer programming in high school, at a time when programming was not an established career path, and imagined he would become a doctor.<ref name="Stanton-2025">Template:Cite news</ref> He worked as a paperboy, and later a telegram messenger for Western Union.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1980, Newell enrolled at Harvard University to study programming.<ref name="Stanton-2025" /><ref name="Fish-2021" />

Career

Microsoft

While at Harvard, Newell visited his brother at Microsoft, which was not yet a major software developer.<ref name="Stanton-2025" /> At the suggestion of the Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer, he dropped out of Harvard and began working at Microsoft.<ref name="Stanton-2025" /> Newell said later that Microsoft was the best place in the world to learn to program at the time.<ref name="Stanton-2025" />

Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft as a programmer and technical executive, and produced the first three releases of the Windows operating system.<ref name="Pastis-2024a">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Creative Minds">Template:Cite web</ref> In late 1995, Doom, a 1993 first-person shooter game developed by id Software, was estimated to be installed on more computers worldwide than Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 95. Newell said: "[id] ... didn't even distribute through retail, it distributed through bulletin boards and other pre-internet mechanisms. To me, that was a lightning bolt. Microsoft was hiring 500-people sales teams and this entire company was 12 people, yet it had created the most widely distributed software in the world. There was a sea change coming."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At Microsoft, Newell led development on a port of Doom for Windows 95, which is credited with helping make Windows a viable game platform.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Valve

Template:Main Inspired by Michael Abrash, who left Microsoft to work on the game Quake at id, Newell and another employee, Mike Harrington, left Microsoft to found the video game company Valve on August 24, 1996.<ref name="Creative Minds" /><ref name="Fish-2021" /> Newell opted to found Valve instead of retiring as he felt working with "other really smart, motivated, socially orientated people to create product that would affect millions of other people" would be more fun.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Newell and Harrington funded development of the first Valve game, the first-person shooter Half-Life (1998),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which was a critical and commercial success.<ref name="gamespotfame">Template:Cite web</ref> Harrington sold his stake in Valve to Newell in 2000.<ref name="Pastis-2024a" /> Newell gave Valve no deadline and a "virtually unlimited" budget to develop Half-Life 2 (2004), promising to fund it himself if necessary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He and Valve came close to bankruptcy during a legal battle with Vivendi Games, which ended when an intern discovered an email revealing that Vivendi was destroying evidence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the development of Half-Life 2, Newell spent several months developing Steam, a digital distribution service for games.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> By 2011, Steam controlled between 50% and 70% of the market for downloaded PC games and generated most of Valve's revenue.<ref name="Chiang-2011" /> At a technology conference in Seattle that year, Newell argued that software piracy was best addressed by offering a superior option rather than pursuing anti-piracy technology. He cited Steam's success in Russia, where piracy is rife, as an example.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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Newell accepting the Pioneer Award at the 2010 Game Developers Conference

In 2007, Newell expressed his displeasure over developing for game consoles, saying that developing processes for Sony's PlayStation 3 was a "waste of everybody's time".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On stage at Sony's keynote at E3 2010, he acknowledged his criticism but discussed the open nature of the PlayStation 3 and announced a port of Portal 2, remarking that with Steamworks support it would be the best version for any console.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Newell also criticized the Xbox Live service, referring to it as a "train wreck",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Windows 8, calling it a threat to the open nature of PC gaming.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the 2013 LinuxCon, Newell said the Linux operating system and open source development were "the future of gaming". He accused the proprietary systems of companies such as Microsoft and Apple of stifling innovation through slow certification processes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2009, IGN named Newell one of the top 100 game creators, writing that it was "almost impossible to gauge" Valve's influence on game design, technology and the video games industry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In December 2010, Forbes listed Newell as "A Name You Need to Know", primarily for his work on Steam and partnerships with multiple major developers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2013, Newell was added to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and received the BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the video game industry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2024, Newell had become less involved in Valve and was spending more time on personal projects.<ref name="Pastis-2024b">Template:Cite web</ref>

Other ventures

In 2022, with Philip Sabes, Newell co-founded the neuroscience company Starfish Neuroscience to develop neural interfaces.<ref name="Pastis-2024b" /> In May 2025, Starfish announced that their first chip will be released in late 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Newell is the owner of the marine research organization Inkfish, which owns several ships and submarines.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Pastis-2024b" /> In November 2022, Inkfish purchased the Hadal Exploration System, a private deep-sea exploration platform, from the undersea explorer Victor Vescovo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In August 2025, Newell acquired the privately owned yacht manufacturer Oceanco.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Charity work

In 2020, Newell and the Valve employee Yahn Bernier created a car racing team, the Heart of Racing, to raise funds for children's charities in Seattle and New Zealand.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the same year, Newell worked with Weta Workshop and Rocket Lab to send a gnome figure from Half-Life 2: Episode Two into space. Newell donated $1 for every person who watched the launch video in 24 hours. The money went to the pediatric intensive care unit at the Starship's children hospital in Auckland, New Zealand.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Net worth

In October 2017, Forbes listed Newell among the 100 wealthiest people in the United States, with an estimated net worth of Template:US$.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="net worth">Template:Cite web</ref> In December 2021, Forbes estimated that Newell had a net worth of Template:US$<ref name="net worth" /> and owned at least one quarter of Valve.<ref name="net worth" /> According to Charlie Fish, the author of The History of Video Games, as of 2021 Newell was the richest person in the video game industry.<ref name="Fish-2021" /> In 2025, Forbes estimated that Newell owned at least half of Valve and had a net worth of $11 billion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

File:Gabe Newell - 2002.jpg

Newell in 2002

Newell formerly suffered from Fuchs' dystrophy, a congenital disease which affects the cornea. He was cured via two cornea transplants in 2006 and 2007.<ref name="Chiang-2011">Template:Cite web</ref> On the same day he founded Valve with Harrington, Newell married Lisa Mennet.<ref name="Fish-2021" /> They have two sons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The birth of their first son in the late 1990s inspired the final boss of Half-Life, as the couple considered childbirth the most frightening thing they could think of at the time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2019, Newell and Mennet had divorced.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2011, Newell said his favorite video games included Super Mario 64, Doom, and a Burroughs mainframe version of the 1971 Star Trek game, which was the first game he ever played.<ref name="Ingham-2011">Template:Cite web</ref> Doom convinced him that games were the future of entertainment, and Super Mario 64 convinced him that games were art.<ref name="Ingham-2011" /> Newell was a fan of the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Fish-2021" /> He also recorded a voice pack for the Valve game Dota 2, which referenced many previous statements and phrases from himself in a humorous manner.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Within the gaming community, Newell has the nickname Gaben, derived from his work email address.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Newell said that he tried to grow into his public image: "[Fans] hug me when they run into me. I'm not a hugging person, but that's what they want. I was with my kids the first time that happened in public, and my kids were pretty cool with it. But I wasn't. 'Dad, roll with it.' Even now, I'm learning from our customers."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Newell was visiting New Zealand with friends when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, and elected to stay in Auckland once travel restrictions were eased.<ref name="TVNZ">Template:Cite news</ref> As an expression of gratitude for New Zealand's hospitality, he and others arranged a free event, We Love Aotearoa, with live performances from musical artists across New Zealand. It was accompanied by VR stands for Valve games such as Half-Life: Alyx and The Lab.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The event was postponed from August to December due to a lockdown induced by a second wave of COVID-19.<ref name="TVNZ" /><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Newell applied for permanent residency in New Zealand in October 2020, but had returned to Seattle by 2021.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Newell owns several ships and has lived mostly at sea since the pandemic.<ref name="Pastis-2024a" />

Further reading

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External links

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